The political function of narrative in organizations

Abstract

This article extends recent developments in critical‐interpretive approaches to organizations by examining the relationship between power, ideology, and organizational narrative. It is argued that the production of organizational reality can be explained in terms of its structuration through ideological meaning formations; such meaning formations simultaneously produce and are created by the structure of power interests in organizations. Organizational narrative is examined as one of the principal symbolic forms through which organizational ideology and power structures are both expressed and constituted.